Microsoft has announced that the company has passed the 130,000 app marker on the Windows Phone Store. In a blog post on the Windows Phone Developer blog, Todd Brix goes into some detail about how the platform is progressing, as well as how the year 2012 was for the company's mobile machine.

Highlighting a ChangeWave Research piece, Brix proudly unveils that Windows Phone owners are more likely to be "very satisfied" with the experience than Android - 53 percent against Android's 48 percent. This isn't a massive surprise, especially with the sheer amount of complaints that riddle the Android platform. Windows Phone has its own issues, but they're slowly being addressed.

Microsoft has reportedly managed to grow its total addressable market by 90 percent in 2012, leading to leaps in marketshare (by leaps, we mean small steps to iOS and Android standards) in a number of markets. What's more interesting to note for developers is the 75 percent increase in app downloads, 91 percent increase in paid app revenue, as well as the 1 billionth transaction being eclipsed. Windows Phone is averaging 55 downloads per consumer.

The developing community has been growing rather rapidly as well. Developer registrations are up by over 40,000 in the first 90 days since the release of Windows Phone 8. 15,000 new apps that take full advantage of new functionality are available to consumers, providing a rich experience with advanced features. It's all starting to sound like the foundations of a cute love story.

It's an exciting point in time as the 130,000 app count is expected to surge with the Windows Phone 8 SDK being downloaded more than 500,000 times in less than four months (October 2012) - not bad going. We're still soaking up the goodness of Mobile World Congress, so after the event passes we'll be sure to join the Windows Phone team and push through a successful 2013.

For more details, head on over to the blog post and read up on the magic.

Reader comments

But only 10k in the last four months. Isn't this low????? They announced 120k at the end of October so its not that much, isn't it? Also, where the heck is the Pandora at they promised for January back in October?

That's still 2.5k per month....not too shabby. I am just ready for there to be equal parity in terms of apps that are released for iOS and Android to be released on WP at the same time, or at least get developers to commit to WP, especially when it comes to games. There are some games on iOS and Android that I really miss, and I hate that I have to keep my iPod around to play them. In terms of other apps Windows Phone is just fine, but WP is really starting to fall behind when it comes to games....

I think the big hold up on apps, especially where WP8 is concerned, is that building for WP8 requires Visual Studio 2012 on Windows 8 Pro. Hopefully, now that those pieces are firmly in place we can start seeing some real traction, especially when W8 (& RT?) gains the ability to run WP apps.

I think MetroRadio is better than the official Pandora app as you never hear commercials and you can skip songs to your heart's content, but regardless its annoying that it is taking so long for them to get this app out. Any way you cut it, the app situation on WP8 is barely any better off than it has ever been on WP.

Problem with alternative to say Pandora is that Pandora is free,there channels are very good and songs are close to channel in Nokia music I choose lil Wayne channel and I'll get a Miranda Lambert song I hope Pandora comes soon

You may have a point with Instagram although I don't care too much for it. Drop box and Pandora? There are so many alternatives. Why are you so hung up on it? I got 50GB on Box.com and 25GB on Skydrive and they are all free.

It doesn't matter if there are alternatives. It doesn't even matter if the alternatives are better. If people are using a service they are using it, and it's often a hassle to change.

It's like me telling the person with no music taste above not to listen to Lil Wayne and listen to some decent music. He has his taste (questionable as it is) and that's what he wants to listen to. Someone uses Box, doesn't matter if Skydrive is better, he's got his files there and that's what he wants.
They aren't there and given how fast WP is (finally) growing, there will be a lot more people complaining. Still I am sure they will come soon, WP has reached the point where no decent company should be ignoring it.
Anyway, people spend too long discussing these missing three apps. We will have them soon and then we can move beyond these silly discussions we have every day on here.

To a certain extent this can be said of all platforms. Personally I think the combination of Outlook.com, SkyDrive, Office, Windows 8, WP8, Surface/tablet, and Xbox etc. is an excellent combination. Someone else may prefer iPhone, MacOSX, iPad, Apple TV, iCloud, etc. Others still, GMAIL, android, chromebook/linux based OS, Google Drive and docs, PS3, etc. In order to make managing your digital life easier, you have to find the solutions or platforms that work best for you. WP8 and/or the MS ecosystem might not be for you and that's cool.

Its not about what I, or you, think is important it's about what millions of users expect to be available when they purchase a smartphone.. I completely have no use for an American Idol, or Victoria Secret app, but do you know how happy it would make me to see these come to WP?? Come on dude,, don't you know what's going on here? Wake up!

Some of you just don't get it! Apps from major brands like Coke, McDonald's, JC Penny's, Target, Disney, and American Airlines have promotions, nutritional information, locations, games for kids, discounts, news, and ways to give feedback.. It is important to have the McDonald's app on WP if both Android and iOS have it.. That's the point!! When the average consumer goes into a store and see's that a app is available, they expect for it to be in their marketplace, especially if they are coming from other platforms where every app has been available.. Its simple. If a large Bank, Business, or organization has a app it needs to be in the WP store. Were talking about WP gaining market share not what you or I use on our phones..

I agree with you 100%. I really don't plan on using McDonald's or Pandora, but if we want to see WP gain market share, those are the apps people use and want. Like instagram, we don't have it so I found EyeEm and it works just fine for me. But, it's not all about what I want, it's about what is being used on iOS and Android.

I get it, my wife won't switch because she likes using the newest apps, pointless or not. I was mainly asking about McDonald's because I didn't even realize they had an app. Still, if I knew someone that wouldn't switch because of the lack of a McD's app, I would have to rethink that friendship. Lol. I wasn't actually disagreeing with you, just wanted to know what was in the McD's app.

Oh yeah! Any big business you can think of has a app now.. Even the ones who don't advertise having one has one.. But, you're right, it would be stupid to not switch because the McDonald's app is missing. Apps like that aren't very critical, but if WP is missing tons of non critical apps then that can become critical!! LOL! Funny how that works.

I think the main aspect to you post that I agree 100% is the need for WP to be mentioned along side of the likes of ios and android with major brands. Like you mentioned when someone walks into Mcdonalds and they have a big poster that mentions check out our app, and at the bottom you only see ios, or ios and android. WP needs to be included in that for this success to continue. It is only a negative to have the other two OS's mentioned on major company advertisments and wp is left out.

Yeah!!! That's the most important thing! As far as WP succeeding that's the single thing that's going to have the biggest impact on market share.. You just made the best comment of the year so far!!! Seriously, your comment is all that matters right now!!

I seen very much progress in the store.. Where are the must have apps? I would rather the store have only 100 apps if they were all useful, major, and quality apps.
Nothing to see here folks.. Move along...

Even though we have that much apps in the marketplace, whats the percentage of the apps in that marketplace considered decent quality and useful. I use windows phone and love it and have found some useful ones but not that much.

Well so far I've found everything I need (except instagram) and I like the third party client apps more than the original. Metrotube, Metroradio, Nokia apps. So personaly I don't care about the app number. Quality > Quantity. What really need to happen is for WP to get double digits in users.

The same apps on competing platforms are simply better. We have counterparts that have showed up on WP only to be inferior or never updated. There is always exceptions, but the majority are simply not up to standards.

They can brag about how many markets but things like US only basic features such as podcast support will prevent its growth, or maybe shrink because of people jumping ship as they can't take it anymore

MS needs another conference for apps. Like build but next month. Get more news and interest. Get people talking about apps on Xbox and Windows and on WP. If BB is still out doing WP by summer, I think we shall be stuck in fourth.

I would guess its small business owners like me that have to keep an Android around for taking CC's or even bigger can't listen to my .wav files very important as that's my work VM... So I have to carry two phones. Hard to be happy

Its not the size of the marketplace that matters, it just what fandroids and iDiots spout because their are insecure. Who needs 500k worth of fart apps and soundboards? As long as we get all the popular and major brand apps then we have the quality and the quantity doesn't matter

Need more Banking and Finance apps. Need banks other than Chase and BAC. Not a single major US based brokerage company is available now.
Need to bring on Tango since Skype isn't cutting it (yet).
I don't use Instagram, but a ton of people do.
Even just simple stuff like TV Guide.
I wish they had true 3rd party browsers, but I can understand that not happening. They just need to make IE better.

Agreed with banking apss. Unfortunately, as we saw in the mini and micro revolutions of days yonder, ya gotta use our 'flavour' of Unix, BASIC, C, Objective-C, C++, C#, etc. etc-and Java's great experiment of code once, run everywhere keeps getting the snot kicked out of of over security breaches.
Give the bankers a COBOL environment on the phone and the app would be done in about a month.

Sometimes I wonder regarding official apps, does MS need beg, do companies not know WP exist, is it hard for them to develop for, they don't have time or resource, they don't care too, I don't get it? There's a market for WP apps!

The big app makers and corporations are just following Microsoft's lead. Release high quality apps and frequent updates for ios and android, then push beta and half finished apps for Wp8. If Microsoft doesn't devote the resources, who will?

When it comes to apps, yes people have a valid point or us the consumer. I use the HTC Windows Phone 8X on T-Mobile and I love the device but at time I often get bored with it between switching back from Facebook and Twitter. I usually have to pull out my Nexus 4 since it was given to me for 60 days as a test trial since I work for T-Mobile. That's another thing, I don't sell the Windows Phone platform that often. Even when a customer is thinking about the the 8X or the L810, I ask them do they use Instagram and for those that say yes, I recommend an Android phone which I personally despise. WP8 has ultimate potential but HTC is not investing in apps and Microsoft really screwed up by discontiuing Zune. Personally I loved it because there's a lot of music that I download from Xbox Music and they are catergorized in the wrong genre... my opinion. If Microsoft got all the mainstream apps for Windows Phone and games, then we'll compete big; but then again if BB10 is coming out with Instagram, then why the eff are we still left in the dust. C'mon Windows Phone motto is "Putting People First" but yet they're not giving us what we ask for. I wan't to personalize my own notification instead of the lame notification sound they have preinstalled. My N4 is programmed to say "You Got Mail" for the AOL pioneer days everytime I get a new email. I want that customization.

I'm fine with what's out here personally, but I'm sick of the commercials mentioning iThis and Android app that, never for WP. Plus it seems like Nokia is doing 100x more than Microsoft when comes to peddling this ecosystem.

Where I live, You often only see iThis and iThat, even Android is often ignored. Yes, I live in a bitten-fruit-country. And while I understand the frustration, I tend to wonder when some people will need a breathing app to survive. I know, commercials can do that to you: they make you believe you need this and that, they somehow trigger our hunter/gatherer instinct. The key is to switch off that instinct after it has kicked in, an then rationally think if this and that app are really, really mandatory for your wellbeing.

Don't forget about the good fart apps. All we got are stupid. We need an app that the farts really sound wet + a variety of other sounds. C'mon man android and IOS have all kinds of fart apps. This is ridiculous. This is 2013!

Don't get me wrong, I love my 920, everyone who says who cares about Pandora, instagram, dropbox etc., are idiots! These are crucial apps that make or break a sale for anyone thinking of switching to wp8. "who needs them" blah blah blah, WP8 NEEDS them! The more people using the OS the better, NOT other way around. And please stop comparing Pandora to Nokia music or iheart radio! Its about the choices and selections of apps, and unfortunately people aren't choosing wp8.

Why is this the case - are people generally more inflexible these days, or too pampered to even consider something new or different? There is a lot of stubornness in that, imho - with more choice, customers seem to become less flexible instead of more. I'm wondering about that.

I figured we'd have more by now. Seems the number coming in has gotten slower with the switch to wp8. We need more games thats forsure the games we have remind me of the iphone 3g days. Also banking store apps and instagram. Id like other apps to be updated! like slacker and facebook.

By the end of the year they need to double the number, bring the essential most popular apps, get the same attention as Android and become an established platform in the mind of everyone around the world. The number would be larger if they had released the system earlier and Lumia 520, 620, 720 was made available in December 2012. If the upcoming Blue update or Lumia 1000 release won't convince people to develop/port a ton (the next 150k) of nice apps for Windows I'll be worried when 2014 will come knocking. 130k is a good start, now the real job begins.

AppFlow is reporting over 139,000 to me right now and we all have to rememberr that different markets have different totals depending upon localization, etc.
I have noticed a slowing, but I'm not sure by how much. I was seeing it tick up between 300-500 a day, but less lately. Now, I think it is beginning to tick up again, and we have seen updates and entries that perhaps surprised some.
We also have to consider that the App market has also taken a fork in the road, with it divided between 3 roads: one that leads to legacy phones with 7.5/7.8; one that leads squarely to WP8; and a third that is a cross - Apps that support both 7.8 and WP8. Small wonder it may have slowed lately. But I still expect to see it break 150,000 or more by summer.

I'm wondering where all those instagram/pandora users are? I don't know a single person who uses those apps and I know mostly Android and iPhone users. I'm 40+, know mostly people of my own age group, maybe that's the reason. Also, you wouldn't believe how many people in my peer group avoid Facebook like the plague, mostly due to privacy reasons. Are 40+-people more critical when it comes to their privacy, or could it be a matter of region, what do you think?
Regarding alternative apps: I wonder why some - or most - people would let the availability of a certain app dictate what hardware to use, especially with alternatives around. Seems quite inflexible to me. And do you remember the outcry from iOS instagram users when this app came to Android? I was amazed -shocked even - about the badmouthing. Not having own children and not having acted like this as a teenager (never was a herd animal) I ask: is this simply the way young people are? (generally spoken)

Just to touch upon the age thing and Facebook. I don't know if its region based or what. I can tell you my mom, aunts, stepmother, mother in law, father in law, a host of my wife's aunts and uncles, and parents of friends are all on Facebook and are over 40. For them, its another avenue in keeping up with everyone. As for the privacy thing, I never understood the paranoia surrounding it and Facebook. You truly are in control of how much info is posted and displayed and have many recourses to share or hide what you don't want folks to see.

Interesting, so its not a matter of generation.
The thing is that it takes a certain effort to really protect your privacy in FB. I tried it and for me, it was way too much effort. Regarding privacy: I take it very seriously. For example, I don't want my face anywhere online without my consrnt - at least where I can avoid it. Its not that I have anything to hide, but I also dislike things about me being shown without me being able to have any control about it. Sonetimes, not only surveillance cameras, but also modern gadgets give me that eerie big brother - feeling. That's also the reason why for example Google Glass gives me the creeps.

I am happy with the progress. I am yet to come across any app (or an alternative) that does do what I want. The only thing I miss is the games part. In the last one month through, thigns have improved with Skulls of Shogun, Bejewelled and Assasins creed!!!

They code ported a whole OS in just about a year, which is a crazy feat actually. But it meant they couldn't put out the SDK because I don't think they were sure what they could let devs use that would be stable until the very end. It will be interesting to see how the next 6 months go, because that should give the devs a chance to get a handle on how the api's work.
But the bottom line is, if you want to get the biggest, and most importantly 'official' apps first, WP won't get those. If that is most important to you then WP isn't the OS for you. It won't be for a long time. All they can do is make cool devices that make people (esp Americans) go 'ooooh shiny', and buy despite the lack of mainstream app support. That's how this has to work right now. And of course keep bugging those companies to make the apps you want.

- my number one application i want. ES File explorer. I love this app on my android and really want to be able to surf my own network and file folders. (does anyone have an alternative to this yet?)

- Google maps - this is still the number 1 solution out there. Street view and google traffic is still superior to nokia.

- TD Canada Trust : the problem with WP is that ppl will not build apps until they see massive adoption. I wrote to my bank and other services I used and it is always the same response.(same goes for GO transit in Toronto)

- More XBOX games. its okay, but gaming should be the competitive edge for WP8 leveraging its incredible gaming division.

- VLC for my media player(I think i supported this on kickstarter so its coming)

I have zero interest in Instagram, however they should release it so that this stops being a distraction on the platform